Month: February 2009

No Keyboard Detected

I’ve now replaced the temporary blog name (“Xoduz’ Blog”) I had earlier, and I feel that the new name reflects accurately what both I and this blog are all about. At first I considered using the original Guru Meditation-error as banner, but the bright red on black graphics didn’t really fit along with the rest of the blog. After long hours of tweaking, cursing and banging on my keyboard angry-german-kid style, I finally came up with a customized version that I think works nicely.

I’ve now replaced the temporary blog name (“Xoduz’ Blog”) I had earlier, and I feel that the new name reflects accurately what both I and this blog are all about. At first I considered using the original Guru Meditation-error as banner, but the bright red on black graphics didn’t really fit along with the rest of the blog. After long hours of tweaking, cursing and banging on my keyboard angry-german-kid style, I finally came up with a customized version that I think works nicely. Also, thanks to Matt aka Eolirin for continuously giving me feedback on my banner tweaks.

Why this name for the blog? inquiring minds might ask. Call it a tribute to days long gone, if you will. Or the result of a random search on the Internet for catchy phrases, even (the Random Article-link on Wikipedia can keep me going for ages). Here’s a short list of some of the other names I considered, but ultimately rejected:

  • Rational Choice Theory
  • Flabberghastly Ideas
  • No Keyboard Detected
  • Abort, Retry, Fail?
  • Kernel Panic
  • Ford N Series Tractors
  • Does Not Compute
  • 404 File Not Found
  • 206 Partial Content
  • List of rivers of Bulgaria
  • Approximation algorithm

In the end, Guru Meditation was chosen on the grounds that I’m an old Amiga-user and have always been fond of that particular error, which often popped up for no apparent reason while I was trying to play some random game back in the day. It’s also the 12th greatest error message of all time, according to this article.

Press F1 to continue.

Huzzah – I’m blogging again!

After having taken a nearly two-year long break from blogging (in English, that is), I’ve finally figured it’s time to get my blogging-hat back on and take this website for another spin around the block.

Lots have changed since my previous blogging-period, which lasted from March 2003 until March 2007. For one thing, I moved to Oslo last year (in the end of March). For another, I got a job working as a designer for Funcom, on their MMORPG Age of Conan. Yes, those two points are connected – the main Funcom offices are in Oslo.

I’d also like to pretend that I’ve matured a bit, that I’m older (true) and wiser (still up for debate) now, that I am more prepared for the kind of commitment running a blog actually requires. Of course, this could just be me lying to myself in an attempt to justify re-opening the blog (and a much improved version of it, thanks to WordPress and various plug-ins for it!), and in reality I will end up updating it as in-frequently as I did with my previous blog – but I’m hoping that won’t be the case.

As with the previous incarnation of the website, this one will also be host to some of my drawings, works of light literature and possibly even some of my photos. New this time around will be a heavier focus on computer games, both when it comes to playing them and when it comes to actually designing them. To this end, I might also put up tidbits of game design-knowledge that I (hopefully) manage to pick up, both from my own experiences and from what I can learn by crawling across the multitude of designer/developer blogs that exist out there.

Wish me luck, I’ll probably need it.